What do bees and wasps do for winter?

Question

wouldn't they freeze to death in the hive

Answer 1

Generally wasps do not have a mating flight. Instead they reproduce between a single queen and a male drone in the vicinity of their nesting area. After successfully mating the drones sperm cells are stored in a tightly packed ball inside the queen. The sperm are kept stored in a dormant state until the following spring. At a certain time of year (often around autumn time) the bulk of the wasp colony dies away leaving only the young mated queens alive. During this time they leave the nest and find a suitable area to hibernate for the winter.

After emerging from hibernation during early spring the young queens search for a suitable nesting site. Upon finding an area for her future colony the queen usually constructs a basic paper nest into which she will begin to lay eggs. This varies from species to species in specifics as not all wasps live in paper nests.

Answer 2

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RE:
What do bees and wasps do for winter?

Answer 3

Bees don't build small hives that would fit in your hand. Those are most likely wasps. They build inverted mushroom-shaped paper nests, which they lay eggs in. They develop into larvae and eventually small wasps. You can break them off if you're worried about them, or want to keep their numbers down. I usually leave them alone and only damage their work when repainting, or when I have to work right next to the nest.

Answer 4

Do Bees Hibernate

Answer 5

Most of them die. Bumblebee, wasp and hornet queens hibernate, but all other bumblebees, social wasps and hornets in cooler parts of the world (UK) die. Honey bees also die in great numbers as they huddle together in the hive around the queen. They live off their srores of honey, but thousands die

Answer 6

I think they either freeze to death or they hibernate. But I never heard of a wasp or bee hibernate, did you?

Answer 7

With some species of insects, a very few fertile males and females survive over the winter. With other species,only pregnant females survive the winter. Other species of insects go dormant.

Answer 8

Hibernate.

Answer 9

some migrate. those with exo-skeletons allow themselves to freeze only to be thawed out and returned to life in the spring. Only about one in a hundred survive.

Answer 10

Actually they bury themselves deep into the earth below the frost line - where they will not freeze, and hibernate until spring.